The Story Behind 'Rocky Top' and Its Gatlinburg Roots

How did a lively bluegrass tune, penned in just 10 minutes inside a Gatlinburg hotel room, blossom into an official state song? Listen to the tale of “Rocky Top”’s rise. 

Gatlinburg Origins

“Rocky Top” started its eventful life in 1967, as a diversion for two songwriters who were just taking a break.

Felice and Boudleaux Bryant liked holing up in room 388 of the Gatlinburg Inn to write songs. The married Bryants were already hit-makers, responsible for the Everly Brothers’ 1957 smashes “Wake Up Little Susie” and “Bye Bye Love.” Now they were under contract to write songs for Archie Campbell, a star of country-comedy TV show “Hee Haw.”

Campbell wanted slow songs, and the Bryants obliged. But one day, they longed for an uptempo change of pace. 

For fun, they traded verses about missing the simple life in rural Tennessee: “Wish that I was on ol’ Rocky Top, down in the Tennessee hills/ Ain’t no smoggy smoke on Rocky Top, ain’t no telephone bills…Rocky Top, you’ll always be home to me.” Rapid-fire banjo picking made the perfect setting for the bouncy lyrics. 

What inspired the song? Legend has it that Rocky Top refers to Thunderhead Mountain in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. One of the mountain’s three peaks, dubbed Rocky Top, offers spectacular views.

Winning Hearts

Later that year, the Osborne Brothers recorded the song, and stuck it on the B side of a single. When a disc jockey broadcast “Rocky Top” on a whim, the radio station phones lit up. Callers loved the down-home tune. 

But “Rocky Top” truly took off in 1972, when the University of Tennessee’s marching band played it in a halftime show. The audience went wild. Game after game, fans demanded “Rocky Top,” cheerleaders choreographed routines to the song, and the band played it dozens of times at every game. The song is still the Volunteers’ anthem, and has another tie to the school, too: In 2011, UT and the Bryant family established the Rocky Top Institute, where students create and market “Rocky Top”-branded items.

In 1982, the state legislature unanimously voted to make “Rocky Top” an official state song. From a Gatlinburg hotel to the state capital, this bluegrass tune has become a Tennessee icon. 

Come see why the Smokies inspire artists like the Bryants. Plan a vacation and reserve a private Gatlinburg cabin rental today.